With the need to become more competitive the cattle industry has like most others attempted to be less costly and in particular less labour intensive. The loss of livestock due to inadequate attention such as during calving can also be devastating especially with range cattle.
To obviate the above problems attempts have been made to provide mobile cattle handling systems, two such attempts being in the form of U.S. Pat. No. 3,095,858 issued 2 Jul. 1963 to Oscar E. Bauer and Canadian patent 1,035,214 issued 25 Jul. 1978 to Herbert F. Hoffman.
U.S. Pat. No. "858" provides a pen formed of pivotally hinged mesh type walls hydraulically actuated to encircle and capture an animal. A restraining device is provided to restrain the animal and support wheels are required as the pen is pushed across the terrain. Applicant's device is more easily and accurately controlled when operational even at high speeds, it is fully supported by the vehicle and is mounted on the side of vehicle for complete utility of the vehicle for normal use especially when the device is in the stored position.
Canadian patent "214" has two hinged frame type walls or gates each hydraulically operated to pivotally force an animal rearwardly onto a floor for transportation. Applicants device has no carrying floor but does have a hydraulically actuated head gate or stanchion, is easily controlled, is mounted on the side of the vehicle, and can be stored in an unobtrusive position.